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Auction List for Jan 3rd Released
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December 27th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
I just wanted to pick a small list of 50 domains for the Jan 3rd Auction however with over 200 people submitting over 2,000 quality domains it was hard to turn so many domains away. Instead of picking 50 I picked my top 300 and narrowed it down to 170. My eyes have always been bigger then my stomach and my inability to keep the list small proves it. The amount of quality domains is phenomenal. We have enhanced our list to display more information about the keywords in the domains as well. We will hold another auction next month as well, we intend to keep the quality going and giving bidders great domains to choose from.
While picking I tried to separate the domains that people submitted into different categories; Brand-able domains, Dumpy domains, Commerce domains, Trademark domains, Typo domains, and Wishful domains. Let me walk you through the types. Brand-able domains would make great product names or company names however there are so many brand-ables out there that I tried to avoid picking them for the auction unless they are so powerful the domain demanded I pick it. Dumpy, Trademark and Typo domains went straight to the do not pick list. There are a few exception; a trademark domain that can be used legitimately by a dealer or seller of that product might get put in Commerce. Commerce domains have a clear SEO and/or CPC meaning, these are the types of domains that are categories and would make great vertical niche shopping site or information site. If I had to choose between two equal great domains I choose the one that has to do with commerce. So without further ado, here is:
Format of the venue
The auction will start Monday and end on Thursday the 3rd at 11am PST. We will close each Lot one after another just like the live format. In fact, this is the live format but without the house bidders in the live studio audience. The first lot will close at 11am. The next will close at 11:00:30AM, the next at 11:01AM, and so on until all lots are closed. The auction should take about 1.5 hours with no delays. We will close a Lot when no more bids have come in for a 30 second period. We expect about 1 hour of delays as auction fights occur. There are so great names on the list, so I would encourage people to fight before the final 30 seconds. Obviously there will be snippers trying to pick off domains but in the last 30 seconds it will not be possible to snipe.
To bid
Create a DomainTools account and put a credit card on file. We will authenticate and monitor potential bidders. Obliviously many of the bidders are long time users of DomainTools and have bid in previous auctions but for the new guys we will collect phone numbers and confirm identities. We are enabling people to now have a Bidding Alias and a Talking Alias. The bidding alias will be available by Monday from inside your control panel and can be different from your blog posting alias.
Transparency
We have tried to bake as much transparency as possible into the auction format; we are disclosing stats, bidders alias, and reserves. There should be no question about how open we are being, more information the better.
Stats
Just a quick note on those stats next to each domain. We queried Google for the CPC on the keywords, the OVT is Overture numbers, and the GOOG is Google results for the broken up phrase wrapped in quotes. We will enable a CVS download link from the list page before Monday as well so that you can preform your own bulk analysis.
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Posted in DomainTools Auction |
December 27th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
damn, I didn’t make it again, guess I should stop trying.
UPDATE BY JAY: BeerSpace.com is good, but $50,000 I thought was a little too high. Perhaps next time.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Oh man, ummm yeah, some of those domains, please tell me this is a mean joke?
December 27th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Jay - with so many domain names up for auction nearly simultaneously, 30 seconds of reset (meaning that if there is a bid in the final 30 seconds of an auction, the auction will be extended by 30 seconds) seems to be waaaaay too short of a period for someone to actively participate in more than a small number of those auctions. Would strongly encourage you to extend that to at least 2 minutes (which is still the shortest of any of the major auction sites). Ideally an auction would end when there are no more bids - not when bidders run out of time to get a bid in because they are busy with other auctions. Thanks!
UPDATE BY JAY: I think you are misunderstanding the format. There is only one Lot closing at a time. They will go in turn and not Simultaneously.
December 28th, 2007 at 12:51 am
My Dear Sir DomainTools , greeting hi ,
>> We will hold another auction
>> next month as well,
really ?
cheers ThANKye , 2w
December 28th, 2007 at 12:56 am
My Dear Sir DomainTools , greeting hi ,
>> We will hold another auction
>> next month as well,
do ye mean
.a. an other auction at february2008 e.t.c. , or ,
.b. just the already announced auction january2008 , or ,
.c. ……… ?
?
cheers ThANKye , 2w
UPDATE BY JAY: February.
December 28th, 2007 at 3:58 am
Jay, are we still able to add special notes (that might impact prices paid) on the selected names, and where would any bidders see those notes? For example, HUD.us was previously a registry reserved name and a major player in US home foreclosures. Actually I think it might be a good idea to have a link from each name for more in-depth information/stats/market studies/usage suggestions etc on future auctions.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Six years in the domain business
I pick 20 from my 5000 and none make it into the auction.
I think your selection process is skewed.
Certainly, I am.
From a catchy name with a Google of only 4 to another
with a Google results of over 12,000,000. None of my 20
are good enough to be included, yet while the ones selected
all have some merit, some are lame and un inspiring.
47 may be an Eisenstein prime, but I’m afraid 47.org just doesn’t grab me.
10114 may be a zip code, but it has only one physical address….
Hows about you let US vote…? (1 vote per IP per domain)
on the domains that didn’t make it into this auction…
to select the 1 or 2 hundred for the Feb auction ?
For monitization, domains may best be selected with the head.
However, domains are ‘AdNano’ Advertising’s nanotechnology.
For advertising, to capture the public’s interest…
I believe domains are best selected with the heart.
The best Ad is .com Perhaps I should have submitted ElectBeer.com?
Thanks for the opportunity….
DotCrucible
UPDATE BY JAY: ShoesYou.com for $5,000. Richard, I am sure you can do better.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:36 am
The three domains I submitted still all say ‘Pending Review’. I know they’re .info but I thought they were quite good, and better than adverting.info. Were the reserves too high?
Many Thanks,
Dave
UPDATE BY JAY: Yeah, the reserves were too high. Keep in mind, Houston.info sold for $17,000.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Jay,
I know you are busy, but just for alittle help….most of my names have “jazz” in them…jazzcolleges.com, jazzschools.net, jazzcharts.net rockguitarplayers.com etc
Is the jazz market just too small, or what could be different so i would make a few auctions?
UPDATE BY JAY: Ron, they are great Brandables. But Jazz domains are not big for commerce and PPC.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Wanna leave this for proposal:
if you would like to accept domains from people for auction, but you think, their starting prices are too high, contact the people urgently back and let them know the starting prices you would let the domain go to auction. So then they can decide to accept your recommended prices or not.
So it is for all parties much better than just to ignore the one or other nice domain.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Sometimes I just can’t help myself….
LeftSide? Stage or stripe?
LastShow? urban legend
CharmedLife? What life is
ByThePeople? Where you’ll find charmed life…
FreeCentral All you can eat
BlogCast Stutter site
Test.net Still has holes..
CuttingHair? Thank You NO!
NationalIdCard? Vanity domains gone bad…
Dimond.net? Muh Muh Muh MY Zircona!
LazerBolt? Fleeing laSer?
TampaCar? Bad wreck…
PrescribePills?
MoneyLei?
BasilGarden?
HeyGoodLooking chills
Hey Good Lookin trills
MauiConnection? As in wowie?
VictorianMusic? Wha Sit Was It?
MotorbikeStore? Met Pee Wee there…
He was buying JellyBags….
92010? Dyslexic zip…
LovingPerson? IP hosted in Ely NV?
LeasePorsche? For one night scand?
BoxingLicense? Ooh dats not…
TravelDegrees? Latitude or Longitude?
StrictlyGames? What no shirts or bling?
OrganicMint? (only lettuce)
InventoryRisk? Must be a fire sale!
FoodSanitizer? Digestive enzymes?
EngravableCuffLinks! Finally, a cuff link domain! !! !!!
CaymanIslandsCompany? Best when invited…
RetirementSaving? As in rescue?
CelebrityPic.mobi? Better than CelebrityRoll.lipo…
Me bitter? cheap query, bite me…
December 28th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Domain tools auction posts…
Cryteria…
PS (someone has it)
December 28th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Wow, yea.. I agree with “monroedk” in #2. And with #11 “dotcrucible” because my…
CustomEarphones.com
ElevatorComplaints.com
OndemandStaffing.com
RapidVending.com
ThinkTrucks.com
ChooseMobility.com
didnt make it and I cant figure out why. Maybe Bizarre.name just says it all.
Well, my names are still “Pending Review” but, then, so are the names from last summer’s auction. :-/
December 28th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I realize it’s a lot of work choosing between names… but apparently there nees to be some change in the proccess.
No offense to the owners but “EngraveableCuffLinks.com” and “VictorianMusic.com” is there really a market for these and other small niche names?
“RapidVending.com” from #13 above as well as several of mine “CoedPartyCam.com” , “JunkMailBuster.com” , “HooterZone.com” (just to name a few) are simply more likely to get multiple bidders than say “92010.com” which will have a limited audience (if any).
Criteria should be useability and popularity of subject matter. Face it… there’s a lot more interest in “hooters” on the internet than there is in “cufflinks”.
Just some thoughts.
Jim K
December 28th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Contract submitted Jay, if the list is still in progress please have a look through my domains.
Unfortunately a good portion couldn’t still be verified due to Monikers system problems with their WHOIS Privacy service.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:51 am
This is Jay’s auction and what he chooses to put in the auction, is his decision. Why bash other people’s domains or Jay? If “you” decided to submit your domain(s) and they were not selected, oh well, move on. Do I agree with all the domains in the list? No. There is no way to make everybody happy, but there is nothing that you or I can do about it, so it doesn’t pay to bitch about it. You win some, you lose some.
Best of luck to those who had domains selected into the auction.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Jay,
Any idea when we can expect the final list?
Justin
December 28th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Jay,
Resubmitted my domains last night, prior to midnight Eastern Time. They had, somehow, been eliminated from your system. Take a look. I think you’ll like what you see. Also kept my reserves low and reasonable. We did over 70k in your last auction–would like to be included in this one, too.
In any event, good luck on the 3rd.
David
December 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Justin,
I think we’ve seen it.
yofie,
I agree with you…
but our voices need to be heard.
IMHO domains at their best are distilled advertising and parking traffic stats have little to do with a good domain, which is short, and memorable with easily understood spelling. What do Google results mean? A clever phrase with Google results of 0 will not be confused with any other ad campaign, while Google results in the millions will give another domain a familiar ‘ring’. It’s nice to know ‘stats’ about a domain, but is a domain memorable? What’s your motivation? Whether you are the domain owner or the web audience, your motivation is relevant to your perceptions of domain names. If it strikes a chord with the criteria of your motivation, a memorable domain name will suck you in and if there was relevant quality content that same domain will bring you back. Large typein traffic could just be domainers looking to see what’s there. Entrepreneurs are hungry for MEMORABLE domains that can be put to work in some Ad Venture.
I think “It’s the criteria stupid”. The easymoney domain criteria days are over (Jay). Now it’s relevance and resonance. All of us who didn’t get ANY domains into the auction are miffed at what we feel was missed. That’s why my word for today is…
CRYteria….
UPDATE BY JAY: Brandable names only go so far. The big buyers are not brand buyers. I try to include some Brandable domains but there has to be a balance.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Does pending review mean we did not make it? Our site all have many years and decent traffic. All .com and thousands of links pointing to them from Google. Does DT only pick friends for the list. I spent many hours verifying and setting this up for nothing to be included? I think my sites are better than half the domains in the auction that were accepted? Unhappy.
UPDATE BY JAY: I do not pick domains based on who submits them. I sort ALL the domains and go through them with metrics. With thousands of domains to go through only a small percentage can bubble to the top. Thank you for the three submissions, they just did not make the cut today. They might make the next auction.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Jay:
Can you please verify that you have different bidding steps which depend on the reserve price? Please be sure not to make them too small. A domain starting at $1000 should probably have $100 or $200 steps, one starting at $100,000, at least $5000 or $10,000.
rptek
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, the lowest step will be $100 in the up coming auction.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:32 am
thanks for commenting on beerspace.com, I’ll submit it a little lower next time. Also it includes about 25 domains total, the usual .net’s and .org’s along with plurals and hyphen spellings. For now I’ll continue working on the site, thanks again for the feedback.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:59 am
If each domain tool member could vote thumbs up or down on any of the 2000 domains that didn’t make the cut for this auction and the top ones would be added to the Feb auction, I think that would be really neat. Dosen’t everyone have time to pass judgement on 2000 domains? Not an easy task. A lot of people would get a reality check. Maybe for a domain to be included 75% of the voters would have to have given a thumbs up. Domain tools is stat city, bring it! I’m still in shock…. but then no email yet and all 20 domains still say under review….oh pleeease….sniff….(CRYteria)
December 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
mine is still pending review I have 3 names in a dot net
December 28th, 2007 at 11:10 am
The marketplace will determine the auction outcome.
DotCrucible, don’t feel too bad–mine didn’t even make the pending review stage, although I submitted at the beginning.
I was surprised to see a .name on the list, though. (????)
Ms Domainer
December 28th, 2007 at 11:17 am
I have 3LB.net M3Z.net 8MT.net still pending review I have matchmade.net exhcnageupdates.com that is just some of them and a .us???? on the list
December 28th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I will observe with great interest at how those two .name domains fare.
I might have submitted Literary.name, but I figured its chances of being sold were slim to none.
IMO, those OVT numbers are pretty worthless unless the domain is a .com. How many users directly navigate to a .biz domain?
What makes a non-.com domain valuable is how it’s marketed and used; if it’s just parked, well, lots of luck.
How many users are going to directly navigate to “Literary.name”? Not many, I can tell you with 100% certainty.
Best, Ms Domainer
December 28th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Wow, I actually got 3 names “on the list” this time.
A small tip from someone who was denied on the first auction and made it into this one: Be *realistic* with the reserves.
I guess the real test will be how the bidders react to the domains
December 28th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
My domain names did not make it to the final. Life goes on.
I hope those names that made it to the final will find a new buyer at the auction.
I know it is tough to go through thousand of domain names to find hundred domain names for the final. I respect Jay and his team for their effort.
I have an idea and I know someone will agree and disagree with my idea.
Most domainers who submitted their domain names for this auction wanted to see their domain names at the final auction. We want our domain names to be seen by potential buyers and sell them at the auction.
What do you think about releasing all domain names that were submitted to this auction to the public so the buyers or even the sellers will have a chance to make their decision about those names and prices? You may turn sellers into buyers.
Every buyer has different perspective in what they are looking for in domain names, if they find any names they like from those names that did not make it to the final then everyone is happy. Domain names will be sold. Domaintools.com will make commission.
If one decided to release these names to the public then it has to be after January auction and ended before February auction.
This is a win win solution for domainers and domaintools.
Domainers will has some new idea and perspective about their names and price for next auction. If no buyers interested in my domain names then I will pick a new names for next auction and I will be realistic about the price next time so my names will make it to the final next time.
Domaintools will always make a commission from those sold domain names that were submitted for January auction.
Happy New Year
December 28th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
For the ones asking to see all the domains that were not accepted, I didn’t see that in the “contact” that domains not accepted will be shown to the world…. Maybe people do not want there domains to be seen if they didn’t make it to auction?
The voting thing was done with the last DRT auction and I don’t think it really made a difference.
The one solution that I see, is Jay asking for domaintools.com users to submit a “why I would be helpful” letter to Jay. Then Jay picks 5 people. Those 5 people and Jay vote on which domains should go to auction (this would be for future auctions). I personally do not think just going off stats, is the right way to pick domains for a public auction.
I wanted to see some LLL.com, .net’s for bidding reasons, but not one made it? Plus some more Generics, since that was the theme for this auction. GelBra.com and WireRack.com were the only two Generic .com product domains I seen.
December 28th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Couple of comments about the stats.
1) The CPC from Google will be different for different user accounts and based on Landing Page quality.
2) For ccTLD it would be more appropriate to use country specific
Overture/Yahoo searchmarketing.
example: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.in/link_advisor/?query=car insurance rate
Similarly, for google results, it’s more appropriate to use local google and restrict it to pages from that country.
December 28th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I just had an idea. Let me preface this by saying I got one name on the list so I am not writing for myself per se… but how about when choosing the domains; DomainTools picks the best one from each list so every submitter gets at least one name in auction (and the best of the rest to round out the auction).
This will maintain the interest among submitters, thereby guaranteeing DomainTools continuing input from the widest variety of submitters, and in the end providing the greatest service to submitters, buyers and DomainTools itself.
Any thoughts?
Jim K
UPDATE BY JAY: Jim, in fact we will do something like this. It is already planned.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I put 5 domains in. None made it. Atleast not yet. But that’s okay. I sold another one over the holiday that I hadn’t even thought about selling until the night before I sold it.
I’ll just leave the 5 parked for now and on the system for the next auction and maybe add a few more by then. In the meantime I’ll work on my sites and see what other oppourtunities come along.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Jay, of the names that don’t make the list for the upcoming sale… can they be put on a list for only the bidders to look over and possibly choose the ones they would like to see in the February sale if still available?
December 28th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
A bit disappointed because none of my domains made it to the auction.
I put a $1000 for all domains so that they would be picked up, but had no success.
Well, I am sure they are valuable, since one of my early submissions that I deleted just got a $1000 offer via whois inquiry. I still negotiate on it but hope it will sell soon. And it was an August reg.
Do the domain age count in the selection process? I am not old in this business however I sold more than 30 new regs for at least $xxx this year.
Regarding the list there are some wonderful names and some pretty questionable ones. I don’t want to give names, since I hope every domainer can sell them, but some of these have a really strange tld.
I know in the first auction you tried to stick with .com only, and you got some criticism, but I doubt any of the domains in other than well established tld’s will not sell, and it is your interest too to sell them.
I wish DT and all the auctioners the best,
Alex
December 28th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
To all of the whiners in these posts, why don’t you a) hold your own auctions so you can sell whatever domains you want b) not submit them into auctions for fear of rejection or c) just register better domains. This is a subjective game - one’s man’s trash is another man’s treasure - don’t criticize the selection process for an auction which you do not control.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
To jekenterprises
Communication is always necessary. And I hope Jay appreciates all the inputs.
Everything can be improved, and DT in a whole can be improved, and we do it through communication. This is how we evolve.
The online domain auctions are on their footsteps right now. I hope in the future DT will hold regular auctions every month, and this is possible only by listening to all the inputs. While I do not agree with people posting in a negative manner, I know that all opinions count, as much as we are a quite small community.
Not regarding the list, I think that these auctions can be made on a regular basis, and I think this is what Jay wants. For this, there will be need for some end users to come in. Maybe Jay and his team can use their time to give notes to interested parties about these auctions. Bigger sales will result in more quality domains submitted, and that results in even bigger sales and so forth.
Again, happy bidding everybody, and wish the best to Jay and his auctions.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I respect Jay and technological opportunities of DomainTools.
That’s why DT auction was chosen instead of other coming auctions.
And I spent much time to choose domains, submit it, verify emails and paid a buck.
But it is still “Pending Review” and there is no clearness.
Would you please make a favor to review domains, accept it or deny. Just to make it clear.
Thanks for respect to DT members.
UPDATE BY JAY: Some of your .NET domains are great, if they were DotCom I would have picked them. Also a few of your DotCom were great as well, if they had one less “S” in one spot they would have been picked. Your domains almost made the cut.
December 28th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Thank you.
“if they had one less “S”” they had much $$$$$$$$$
Happy New Year!
As for me I can relax now and enjoy Holidays!
December 29th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I appreciate how hard it is to pick the best nuggets from a river of sand, but really Jay, I placed powerbeds.com, harleybid.com and netspeak.org in the auction with reasonably low reserves. To have these names be beaten by adverting.info and engravablecufflinks.com is a bit hard to take. Perhaps advertingengravablecufflinks.biz might get listed?
I’m scratching my head over here.
December 30th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Good luck to all whose domains made in the January 3 auction! I hope to be able to get a good internet connection in Macedonia.
If not, have a great New Year!
Best to all,
Ms Domainer
December 30th, 2007 at 6:33 am
What the heck is a “Harley Bid?”
December 30th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
exactly. “Powerbeds” ? Good Lord.
December 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
VoteObama.org what is that I have a lot better web names then that
matchmade.net
3lb.net
f02.biz
everyone knows what f02 is it is on your keyboard
December 31st, 2007 at 9:45 am
jekenterprises Says: “What the heck is a Harley Bid?”
answer: a bid on a trademark name?
jrg12345 Says: “everyone knows what f02 is it is on your keyboard”
answer: I know where it is, but what?
DotCrucible Says: “I pick 20 from my 5000 and none make it into the auction.”
answer: Next time pick the good ones.
Happy New Year and good luck to the buyers and sellers, some nice names on that list with traffic too. Even wishing that scrooge Dotcrucible a profitable New Year.
December 31st, 2007 at 11:50 am
I do not see from where I can bid?
December 31st, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Perhaps the OT searches are incorrect on many of the names? I’m sure there are several thousand searches a month each for terms like Send Cards, Blogcast, Test and Light Sabers, each of which only show zero OVT on the list of auction names. Sure seems this would affect the bidding if people didn’t know of the amount of demand.